Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0: edit your video from start to finish.(SOFTWARE REVIEW)

So, you are ready to go to the next level. You have a shoebox full of videotapes representing several years of home videos, and the time has come to transform them into an edited video. If you are wondering how to get going, you might consider starting out with Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, an easy-to-use piece of video-editing software created by one of the strongest names in media management and creation on the planet.

STEP 1--BEGIN A NEW PROJECT

Once the program is installed, your first step is to open and run the software. The first screen gives you three choices: 1.) Start a new project; 2.) Open a previous project; and 3.) Capture video. The most recent projects that you have been working on are listed in the bottom half of the screen. Since we are starting out, let's begin with a new project. You are instructed to give the project a name and asked to decide which folder the captured media will be stored in. The default sends the material to the Adobe Elements folder, but you'll probably want to browse your system and set up another folder. I suggest installing a hard drive that will be only used for storing media files.

Next, you'll be taken to the primary workspace window. You'll be brought to a screen with lots of different tools arranged in a variety of tool panels. Each "toolkit" will relate to specific, related similar tasks. Some you will use a lot, others only occasionally.

In earlier versions of Elements, the various tool panels floated about the screen, …